Flavours of the Old City

Your tour will start with you sitting down to a local market-style breakfast of foods you have sourced fresh from the market. You can take your time eating your kahvaltı and sipping your çay the way that Turks do. 

Following your breakfast, you will start exploring some of the oldest streets in Istanbul, beginning at the Spice Market and embarking along your journey toward the Grand Bazaar. Along the way, we taste döner kebab and künefe, fresh off the traditional wood-fired barbeque and bound to be one of your favourites. Then, make a small rest stop for Turkish coffee inside a historic 300-year-old Ottoman Han.

Once we arrive at the Grand Bazaar, we will wander some of the area’s most authentic streets before climbing up to the impressive gardens of Süleymaniye Mosque. (Note: we do not enter inside the mosque) After enjoying the panoramic Bosphorus views from atop one of Istanbul’s seven hills, you will sit down to enjoy one of Turkey’s most traditional dishes at a 100-year-old restaurant.

You’ll feast your tastebuds on local favourites like kokoreç (we’ll tell you what that is later) and beyran çorbası from the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants adored by locals. As you wander the historic back streets, you’ll experience more than 15 different food tastings during your day.

Finally, your tour will finish amidst 1600-year-old Roman aqueducts with a traditional Anatolian-style lunch – prepared just the way central Anatolians have enjoyed it for generations. Immersing yourself into the authentic tastes of Turkey is sure to be one of the highlights of your trip and a memory to look back on for a long time.

A day spent exploring Flavours of the Old City is sure to surprise and delight your taste buds and unearth the local charms of Istanbul’s Old City.